It's safe to say that everyone would like to have a good life. It's what we all hope for and work towards. The goal of creating a good life is universal--it is common to all people, everywhere--but it is far more complex than it seems.

One critical part of having a good life is recognizing and taking advantage of opportunities. Time passes very quickly and opportunities get away from us. We haven't saved as much as we thought we would, we haven't advanced as far as we'd planned, and we're not as healthy as we thought we would be.

Missed opportunities cause frustration and stress. So we work longer, try harder and struggle more to make up for lost time and lost opportunities. This stress takes a toll both mentally and physically. If we don't pay attention to these changes, we put ourselves at risk. Newton's Third Law "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" means this stress needs to be recognized and reduced, or the consequences could be deadly.

Usually, the area where this stress is felt is in the heart. It's another thing that we all share. The heart is, most commonly, where we pay the price for the stress caused by missed opportunities. In the United States, this is most often seen in men. In fact, between 70 percent and 89 percent of sudden cardiac events in the U.S. occur in men.

This Sunday we celebrate Father's Day.

On Saturday, at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, we're honoring that day with an opportunity that can make a difference in helping everyone take another step toward finding that good life.

Norwalk's Recreation and Parks Department is hosting a "Hands for Life" event at Calf Pasture that has the goal of teaching thousands of people the skills needed to use Hand's Only CPR and AED defibrillation to save lives. It only takes 15 minutes to learn these skills. To increase attendance, Saturday is a free day at Calf Pasture and everyone is welcome.

To encourage you to learn these important skills, here are some things to consider: Worldwide, 7.4 million people die from heart attacks each year, and the United States accounts for over 700,000 of these. It is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and 26.6 million people have been diagnosed with heart disease. Half the time, there are no previous symptoms. Over 75 percent of cardiac arrests occur in the home, and family or friends will witness 75 percent to 85 percent.

Here is the opportunity that we shouldn't let slip by. Performing Hands Only CPR immediately doubles the chance of survival because the chance of death increases 10 percent for each minute without CPR or defibrillation.

Locally, only 25 percent of patients get life-saving CPR by a bystander at the time of cardiac arrest. This is because 70 percent of people witnessing a cardiac emergency feel helpless because they don't know how to perform CPR or are afraid they may hurt the victim.

On Saturday, June 20, at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, we can grab this opportunity to create a good life for ourselves, for our family and friends, and for anyone we encounter who is having a cardiac event. A good life is something that we can, with a little time and a lot of knowledge, help provide if we take this opportunity and use it.